Best Sellers Lost In Fire

The total stock of three of Jack Scofields's best seller aviation books have been lost in a fire that consumed his publisher’s warehouse. The award winning title, Flights of a Coast Dog and the pilot/author’s No Numbered Runways and Coast Dogs Don’t Lie are acknowledged as the pre-eminent books describing the colourful float-plane industry on the British Columbia coast. When first published, Flights of a Coast Dog was awarded a BC Book award and listed as recommended reading for grade eleven students by the Vancouver School Board.

Schofield is hoping to republish the three titles in a 3-book set in softcover if he can pre-sell 80 sets of the books at $75.00 per set to cover the cost of printing a short run. He suggests the 3-book set would be an excellent Christmas gift for your favourite aviator, who might just be yourself.

To order the three book set email Jack. Just order your sets, don’t send any money yet! Jack will advise you when 80 sets have been ordered.

Book Review: Hangar Flying Vol 2

• Hangar Flying - Tales From the Flight Deck, Volume 2
• by Jack Schofield with Arthur Cox
• Published by Coast Dog Press, Mayne Island, British Columbia, 2016
• Electronic on-line only book
• 78 pages
• Price - free

Hangar Flying - Tales From the Flight Deck, Volume 2 is, of course, the much-anticipated second installment to volume 1, which Jack Schofield and Arthur Cox released last autumn. This second book in the series continues the tradition set by the earlier work, of collecting together short flying stories written by the pilots who were there "when it happened". The book also features a wealth of colour and black and white photos, plus the artwork of both Schofield and Cox, too.

Another tradition continued with this volume in the series is that the book is made available to read for free. This volume has some advertising in it, but all are ads are for the other books that Schofield offers from his own Mayne Island, British Columbia based publishing house, Coast Dog Press. His plan is to continue the series to at least a third volume in the near future. As with the last volume, as a COPA member, all you have to do is send Schofield an email and he will send you the link for the book. He will also send you a note when the next volume is out. It is hard to beat all that service and for free, too!

So what do you get for free this time around? Hangar Flying - Tales From the Flight Deck, Volume 2 is 78 pages, just six pages shorter than the first volume. It is not a long book and like the previous edition took me about an hour to read it.

Each of the chapters are short flying stories. As last time, some are serious and some are amusing, but all are worth thinking about, reading and enjoying.

In volume 2 you get:

• Over the Pool, by Robert S. Grant, the story of a Cessna 208 Caravan relief flight in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• Once An Aviator, by Mel Turner, tales from flying Avro Shackleton maritime patrol bombers in some of the small British colonial wars after WWII.
• Beaver to Helsinki, by John Addison, about a very long ferry trip from BC to Finland, mostly at 500 feet.
• A Sketch From History, by Jack Schofield, about a drawing of a Twin Otter he did.
• The Yellow Peril, by Arthur Cox, a tale from training on RCAF Harvards in the 1950s.
• 4000 Merlins, A Story Within a Story, by Jack Schofield, about the crash landing in hostile territory of a Halifax during a 1000 bomber raid on Germany.
• Twisting and Turning, by Ken Armstrong, which details an incident during forest fire fighting with a Bell 205 Huey.
• Fiction - No Laughing Matter (episode two of three), by Jack Schofield with illustrations by Art Cox, about a Gulfstream biz jet charter adventure to Germany with some rather suspicious passengers. The story will be continued in the next the Hangar Flying volume.

I was quite pleased to see the story by John Addison, the former RAF Vulcan pilot, who was the Chief Flying Instructor at Victoria Flying Club when I learned to fly there, almost 40 years ago. Ken Armstrong's name will be familiar to COPA members, as he served many years on the COPA board as a director from BC.

As with the first installment, I greatly enjoyed this book too. It is a fun short read and may lead many pilots to think about why they haven't yet written down their own favourite flying tales. Given the price, there is no reason that this volume shouldn't find a home on your laptop or tablet, too.

External links

• The publisher's website
• The publisher's email

Book Review: Hangar Flying Vol 1

• Hangar Flying - Tales From the Flight Deck, Vol 1
• by Jack Schofield and Arthur Cox
• Published by Coast Dog Press, Mayne Island, British Columbia, 2015
• 6.25" X 8" electronic book
• 84 pages
• Price - free

It is hard to argue with a professional-quality book of flying stories that is offered at this price - free! And perhaps best of all, this is the first of three volumes of books for free that author and publisher Jack Schofield has planned in conjunction with writer and illustrator Art Cox.

Both Schofield and Cox earned their aviation writing and artwork skills honestly, honed during years of lay-overs awaiting passengers in that "downtime" that all pilots find they have at points in many flight itineraries. These two are not writers who know a bit about flying, (but get the details wrong), these are both veteran pilots who learned to write about aviation, as well as draw and paint airplanes, too.

So what's with "free"? Schofield relates that it is so hard for aviation writers to get published these days by traditional book publishers, that he started his own publishing house, Coast Dog Press. Upping the ante, he publishes or distributes not only his own works, but books by other aviation writers, too. The Hangar Flying - Tales From the Flight Deck, series is intended to be a showcase for the talents of the writers in his stable, as he includes writers like Bill Grenier and Peter Barratt in this book. As a platform the book also includes one small advertisement for some of the other titles he sells. He hopes that volume two will have a bit more advertising, at least to help cover costs. It seems like a good formula that works for all concerned, especially readers, who get a free book and will likely get two more volumes of free books in the near future. As a COPA member, all you have to do is send Schofield an email and he will send you the link for the book. He will also send you a note when the future volumes are posted. It is hard to beat that kind of service, all for free!

So what do you get for the price? The book Hangar Flying - Tales From the Flight Deck, is 84 pages. It took me just over an hour to read it, so it is not a long book.

The chapters are short tales, each a good aviation story that the authors thought should be recorded for posterity. Some are amusing and some are thought-provoking, but there is something to be learned from each one.

You get:

• Big Bang by Jack Schofield, the tale of a Beaver engine failure on floats.
• Back to Basics by Arthur Cox, about flying visual circuits in a Lockheed L-1011.
• Thrills in a Tigerschmitt by Jack Schofield, about an off-airport landing in a Tiger Moth.
• New Tricks for an Old Dog by Bill Grenier, covering his leap from a Boeing 747 cockpit to a Robinson R-22 and later R-44 helicopters.
• Pringles for Bleriot by Jack Schofield, covering the foibles of being an airline passenger.
• Near Misses by Arthur Cox, about the very near-shoot-down of an airliner over Lake Michigan in 1988.
• Sex and the Single Engine by Jack Schofield, the story of a free-spirited woman pilot who once worked for him.
• North Star to the Rescue by Arthur Cox, about a repatriation flight for a UN official who had been kidnapped.
• The Homecoming by Peter Barratt, about a special helicopter flight for an NHL star's return home.
• B-25 by Arthur Cox, where he relates flying the venerable bomber in post-war Winnipeg.
• In The Wake of the War Canoe by Jack Schofield, about Queen Charlotte Airlines and the fate of a remote BC camp.
• Fiction - No Laughing Matter (part one of three) by Jack Schofield with illustrations by Art Cox about a Gulfstream biz jet charter adventure with some shady passengers. No Laughing Matter will be continued in the next two volumes.

There are also several extra anecdotes thrown in, in between chapters, including a few subtle smirks that some people might miss, like a little half-page story about General Romeo Dallaire that has a photo of someone else to illustrate it.

Speaking of illustrations, aside from the photos, the book includes Schofield's art, sketches and pointillism drawings as well as Cox's paintings, which add up to give the book a rich, custom feel.

I enjoyed the book, it is great fun and will probably make most pilots recall similar stories from their own hangars. I would normally say something like, "this book would make a nice addition to any pilot's book shelf", but this book is web-based, so it will only find a home on your coffee table and then only as long as that is where you keep your laptop or tablet.

External links

• The publisher's website
• The publisher's email

Book Review: Fling Wing

• Fling Wing - The New Age Bush Pilots with Adventures From a Pilot's Log
• by Jack Schofield
• Published by Coast Dog Press, Mayne Island, BC
• 8.25" X 8.25" softcover
• 148 pages
• No price imprinted, but some booksellers have listed it for $24.95

This book is a recent offering from Jack Schofield, long time west coast pilot, journalist, writer and founder of Canadian Aviator magazine, originally called West Coast Aviator. The book first came off the presses in 2012.

This is a lavish, full-colour work, in a small, square book format, with an emphasis on photographs illustrating selected parts of the history of the Canadian west coast helicopter business. The book follows two approaches to the story. The first 42 pages chronicle a general history in pictures of BC helicopter civil flying, while the balance of the book tells the story of Peter Barratt, the founder of West Coast Helicopters in photos and narrative.

Part one starts at the beginning, with the story of the founding of Okanagan Helicopters by Carl Agar, Barney Bent and Alf Stringer in 1948, starting with a single open cockpit Bell 47-B3. The photos and text follow the company through to its absorption into Craig Dobbin's Canadian Helicopters in 1987. It touches on the founding of Vancouver Island Helicopters in 1955 by Ted and Lynn Henson, including Ted's death in a 1957 helicopter accident. The book also has brief chapters on helicopter maintenance and heli-logging, including its phase-out in recent years for economic reasons.

The second part of the book details episodes from Peter Barratt's 45 year helicopter flying career, from his immigration from the UK as a child, through his time as an RCN Sea King helicopter pilot, to his civil flying career, starting with Okanagan Helicopters on Bell 2006s and S-61s. After he became the Okanagan base manager at Port McNeill, BC, Barratt became involved with the Nimmo Bay resort, a fly-in fishing lodge that he helped construct, hauling loads on the Jet Ranger's hook. He later became an investor in the resort, which allowed him to pursue his other love in life, fishing. Barratt later switched to flying for Highland Helicopters, then back to Okanagan, which became part of the Canadian Helicopters empire and later founded his own company, West Coast Helicopters.

The book's publishing company, Coast Dog Press, represents five different authors who all live on Mayne Island, BC. The company website gives the feeling that it is more of a co-op, as the site explains, "publishing these days is a mugs game, and writers must now market as well as write their books. There are so many people who now deem themselves to be writers that traditional publishers receive about 1000 unsolicited manuscripts per year and rejection slips are flying out there like snowfall on Mount Baker." Coast Dog Press seems to be this group's solution, allowing them an umbrella to do their own writing and marketing. It is worth noting that Fling Wing at least seems to have been published without government assistance, a rarity in Canadian aviation book publishing these days.

Fling Wing is a fun read and certainly will appeal to aviators young or old and also as a good book to share with a non-flyer on a day when the fog socks Tofino in down to the shoreline and the only flying being done is "hangar flying".

External links

• Coast Dog Press website